Hours after the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the release of Punjab’s former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, the state’s Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Friday demanded removal of the state Advocate-General Atul Nanda, Home Secretary Anurag Aggarwal, and Chief Director Vigilance BK Uppal over Saini’s “fiasco”.
Randhawa, sharing close ties with the newly-appointed Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu, minced no words to dub these senior officials as “professionally incompetent”.
In a tweet, Randhawa said: “In view of the fiasco in Sumedh Singh Saini case, I urge Chief Minister @capt_amarinder to immediately remove Advocate General, Home Secretary, and Chief Director Vigilance, for their professional incompetence.” Randhawa tagged Congress former national president Rahul Gandhi and Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu in his tweet. Responding to Randhawa’s remarks, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh advised all Cabinet and party colleagues to check facts before issuing statements.
“I suggest they should discuss all issues, specially sensitive ones, either with me or on the @INCPunjab platform before going public,” the
Chief Minister said in a tweet posted by his Media Adviser Raveen Thukral. Notably, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, around Thursday midnight, ordered Saini’s “immediate release” by describing his arrest as “illegal”, just over 24 hours after he was arrested by the state Vigilance Bureau in a corruption and forgery case. Saini was released by the Mohali court at around 2 am on Friday.
It may be mentioned that Randhawa has all along been criticizing the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder over the unfulfilled poll promises, particularly the delay in action in the 2015 sacrilege and police firing cases.